


When It Rains

by taylor_tut



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime 2003)
Genre: Exhaustion, Gen, Overworking, Parent-Child Relationship, Parental Roy, Sickfic, sick edward
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-16
Updated: 2017-08-16
Packaged: 2018-12-16 01:37:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11818485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taylor_tut/pseuds/taylor_tut
Summary: A prompt from my Tumblr for sick Edward Elric. When it rains, his automail gets inflammed. When his automail is inflammed, it can get infected. Roy tries to deal.





	When It Rains

Absolutely! I’m sorry this is a day late–Happy Birthday, friendo!! You’re amazing and I love you!!

Roy really hadn’t meant to push the kid this far. It wasn’t even a mission, not really. It was more of a simple delivery than anything else, and when Ed had limped into his office, keeping his weight off his automail foot and cradling his metal hand, he’d decided that it was better not to ask about it. Ed was weird that way. While Roy would admit to getting some pleasure out of making him freak out about his height, there were certain buttons of Ed’s that were more trouble to push than they were worth, and insinuating weakness of any sort was definitely one of them.

Riza wasn’t of the same opinion.

“Did something happen to your arm, Edward?” she asked. Ed stiffened in his seat, clearly irritated but knowing better than to take any sort of a tone with Hawkeye, and sighed. 

“No,” he denied, “the ports just get a little sore when it rains.”

“Take off your jacket,” she commanded, and he obliged her. “Sir, are you seeing this?”

Roy hadn’t been saying anything about the interaction transpiring in front of him, opting instead to read a book absently until they were through talking, but when Riza jerked his attention forward, he immediately saw why she was so concerned. The skin around where Ed’s automail met his flesh was red and angry looking, nearly radiating heat to the naked eye and looking almost unbearably tender.

“I’m fine,” Ed maintained, “this is just something that happens.”

“I think maybe you should take a few days of sick leave,” she suggested. “At least until this clears up.”

“I’m not sick,” Ed snapped irritably, exhaustedly, “just sore. I want to get this mission over with.”

“He’s right, Lieutenant,” Roy finally interjected. “He’s a soldier, not a child. If he needs sick leave, he can ask for it himself. If he says he’s well enough to go on a mission, he’s well enough to go on a mission.”

Riza looked unconvinced, but did no more arguing. 

Turns out, she was right. Damn it. She usually was. 

Three days of heavy downpour later, Ed staggered into Roy’s office. 

“You’re late, Fullmetal,” Roy said, not looking up from his paperwork. 

“Yeah,” Ed agreed. He said nothing more as he tossed the papers containing his report onto Roy’s desk and sat heavily down on the couch.

“Not that I expect anything more than tardiness from you,” he continued. “You just always seem to be a little short on time.”

Ed didn’t say anything, but scowled nonetheless. 

“Anyway,” Roy pressed, feeling a bit taken aback by the lack of response, “I’ve got another mission for you.”

That got his attention. “Another?” he practically whined. “I just got back.”

“And now you’re going out again,” Roy said unsympathetically. “Your last assignment was hardly a mission, and there’s no one else around to do it.”

Ed sighed, looked down at his hands, and shifted in his seat. “Then I’m going to have to ask for sick leave.”

Roy faltered. “You can’t just file for sick leave to avoid missions you don’t want to go on, Fullmetal.”

Ed rubbed at his metal leg in the place where it met the skin and winced hard. For the first time, Roy noticed that he was sweating a bit, despite shivering, and there was an unusual flush to his face. He reached for the paperwork file and begrudgingly dug out a sick leave application, extending it out to the boy.

When Ed stood to take it, everything lurched, most of all his stomach. Being upright was dizzying, and his sore leg didn’t want to support his weight. He took two staggering steps forward and reached out for the corner of Roy’s desk, but when he grabbed it with his metal arm and leaned his weight on it to keep from falling, he cried out in pain and the arm buckled, sending him to the floor in a heap.

“Shit!” Roy exclaimed, leaping out of his seat and dropping to his knees beside the boy. “Hawkeye!” 

When she peeked her head in, he didn’t even have to give her instructions before she nodded, then said, “I’ll call medical” and rushed off to do so. 

At this proximity, Roy could feel the heat of fever pushing at him from Ed’s body, worrying and dry.

“I thought you said it wasn’t infected?” Roy asked skeptically, delicately probing Ed’s shoulder with his fingers. 

“It’s not,” Ed maintained. “At least, it wasn’t. I don’t know.” 

Roy unbuttoned Ed’s jacket, which was pulled tightly around him, and slowly and carefully took off his shirt to reveal the hot, angry, clearly infected skin underneath.

“That’s an infection, Fullmetal,” he scolded. 

“Oh. I didn’t… I didn’t know.”

Roy sighed. “How long has it been bad like this?”

“It always hurts when it rains,” he argued stupidly, “so I didn’t know.”

“Edward, answer me. How long has it been this bad?”

“This morning,” he replied. “S’when I got a killer headache.”

Riza poked her head back through Roy’s doorway. “Medical is on their way up, Sir.”

“Good,” he said, “thank you.”

“How’s he doing?”

“The fever is pretty bad,” Roy admitted, “but he’ll pull through.” 

“Is he in pain?” 

Roy faltered. “I–didn’t ask.”

“Ask now.”

“Hey,” Roy tried for his attention, “Fullmetal. You seem pretty ill. Does anything hurt?”

Ed moaned ever so softly, and nodded. Roy’s heart sank knowing that he’d have gone this whole interaction without even knowing. “I’ll get you some ice, then,” he offered. Riza frowned at being left alone with the sick younger alchemist, but Roy found himself not caring so much about that. At least it got him out of the room. This kid was going to be the death of him.


End file.
